Since only two corporations build forty or so brands there's a whole lot of slapping on of names/logos.
Comsumer Reports. PQ on D better then PQ on E.
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Agreed on the Netflix part for sure. It's better than Dish and my current Charter cable. Netflix is 1080p and a higher bitrate than either satellite provider. They give their HD more bandwidth and it shows.
For those wondering Charter is comparable enough to Dish in my area since the switch to their all digital Spectrum service that I can't say I notice one being better than the other. They are both good enough for my purposes so it mostly comes down to the sweet double play they offered me and the lack of a contract.
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"... I think it a safe bet that Sears demands more than LG does in terms of quality ..."
Huh? Why would you think that?
Huh? Why would you think that?
Okay, this thread from the mydish.com boards is from 2013 but even devout Dish customers notice DirecTV's picture quality is much superior.
https://support.dish.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4809
https://support.dish.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4809
I'm like you, I could care less what CR has to say.
It drives me nuts when people have to read the reviews on everything to make a decision.
Just today I had a guy trying to make a decision on a cable modem and router, and couldn't decide on if he wanted to rent a modem or buy one.
He went out and bought a Motorola surf board, and was going to return it and buy an all in 1 model.
I finally told the guy that I have been doing this for 18 years, and this is what I got at my house.
The guy is getting extreme 105 from Comcast and then is having second thoughts that UVERSE may be better since its a dedicated connection vs a shared cable modem connection.
Drove me nuts trying to set this guy in the right direction.
I've noticed a very big difference. I don't know if you had done this or not, but it should be compared on the same TV, because that contributes to it as well. I'll credit Dish Network this, it has very superior hardware and longer list of channels.
For a bit I had both a HWS and HR44 connected to my TV. The difference between the two to my eyes wasn't enough to make that a part of any decision to have either one. Other factors were and are much more important. IOW, both are more than good enough from a HD PQ standpoint.
It must be compared on the same TV. Any comparison done with two different TVs is completely invalid. In fact, both services should be connected to the TV at the same time, the input settings for each HDMI input should be the same, and even tuned to the same channel while flipping back and forth to see the differences.
Direct does not use 1920x1080i. Did you read Scott's post comparing both side by side?
My NBC local OTA via my 922 compares favorably with NBC NY Distant via DIRECTV, the Dish NBC local looks good at times depending on the encoder, both thru my Sony XBR850 4K set ...
Scott never mentioned any resolution values. Everyone's eyes are different too. If someone says they see a difference, I don't argue with them. Maybe they do...
I think a real videophile would see a difference as much because they would be very picky about what is presented and would do some testing of various inputs to see things that the majority of us probably don't see or don't care about. We just want to watch TV without video/audio glitches that are very noticeable.
That's where I'm at with Mediacom right now. They did some 'maintenance', the improvement was very minimal. Checked on regular cable channels and they are just OK, but fewer glitches than before. But fast action sports is a different animal altogether. I recorded a fight rerun last night and the edges are poor, there is motion artifacting and just generally not pleasant to view. A friend was over while I was watching it and said he didn't see anything wrong with it, but he doesn't actually pay attention to TV very much and as long as there is a picture, he's happy.
Now I'm trying to pin Mediacom down as to what my internet cost will be should I drop TV service. They've been rather vague. Cost has to be at least part of the consideration and I know that my total cost will go up, I would just like to have an accurate figure so I know how much. They are supposed to call me to discuss this, supposedly from a rep that won't try to sell me the moon and stars as the reps do when I call them.
That's where I'm at with Mediacom right now. They did some 'maintenance', the improvement was very minimal. Checked on regular cable channels and they are just OK, but fewer glitches than before. But fast action sports is a different animal altogether. I recorded a fight rerun last night and the edges are poor, there is motion artifacting and just generally not pleasant to view. A friend was over while I was watching it and said he didn't see anything wrong with it, but he doesn't actually pay attention to TV very much and as long as there is a picture, he's happy.
Now I'm trying to pin Mediacom down as to what my internet cost will be should I drop TV service. They've been rather vague. Cost has to be at least part of the consideration and I know that my total cost will go up, I would just like to have an accurate figure so I know how much. They are supposed to call me to discuss this, supposedly from a rep that won't try to sell me the moon and stars as the reps do when I call them.
Oftentimes, they "see" a difference (or they have to see a difference) in order to justify their research, investment, etc on a purchase. For example, their fancy HDMI cable must be better than a $8 one from monoprice.com !
Yeah, I'm sure there's that to consider too!! Meanwhile I'm only interested in how it looks on my 73" DLP from 10' away!
I just read the Consumer Reports article and it says that the results were based on the yearly questionnaire rather than real test results. Therefore all that you can conclude is that the users of DirectTV think that they have better picture quality than the users of Dish. Totally meaningless!
I have seen both systems and just as Scott said, sometimes Dish looks better and sometimes DirectTV looks better. It depends a lot on what else the satellite companies are broadcasting at that time. For example, if there are a lot of live action sports being broadcast, then a lot of the bandwidth is allocated to that leaving less bandwidth for everything else. If one provider is broadcasting a lot of sports events compared to the other one, that could make a difference in picture quality.
I have seen both systems and just as Scott said, sometimes Dish looks better and sometimes DirectTV looks better. It depends a lot on what else the satellite companies are broadcasting at that time. For example, if there are a lot of live action sports being broadcast, then a lot of the bandwidth is allocated to that leaving less bandwidth for everything else. If one provider is broadcasting a lot of sports events compared to the other one, that could make a difference in picture quality.
So, is there a difference in the signal quality that Dish sends out compared to Directv? I know that many things contribute to the final received PQ but is there a actual PQ difference from the broadcast source? For years and years the PQ dispute has been argued right here in these threads between "E" and "D" but I find it hard to believe in 2015 the technology does not exist to do a head to head comparison, at least at the source, before any compression is factored in. Some say they can see a difference, some say they can't. Just give us the facts. Are we really comparing 1440 to 19++? If so then the question is answered. As for CR. Why get off on a tangent about appliances that we all know are private lableled and have been for many years? CR has proven to be an excellent guide regarding product performance and reliability. IE. when they test laundry detergents and Tide comes out on top why argue with the results? Do any of us have the time or the inclination to compare 20 different laundry detergents? I don't. Does anybody but CR do these comparisons? If you're in the market for a new carpet sweeper wouldn''t you like to know what brand and model does the best job and what that model sells for?
